Apple Watch Series 10 review: Bigger, better, faster, lighter

The Apple Watch Series 10 is a great choice for everyone, whether you're a Series 9 user, an owner of an older model, or even if you're looking to buy your first Apple Watch. Read India Today Tech's detailed review to find out all about it.

In Short

• Apple Watch Series 10 has a bigger display compared to the Watch Series 9
• The Watch Series 10 is evidently lighter and sleeker than the Watch 9
• The new Watch charges faster than the Watch Series 9

Throughout my time testing the Apple Watch Series 10, Daft Punk's song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger kept coming to mind. I've been an Apple Watch user for almost a decade and use it actively. I start my day by putting on the Watch, rely on it for every workout, and 3-4 times a week, I even sleep with it on. For the past year, I’ve been using the Apple Watch Series 9, 42mm. When I put on the Series 10 review unit, I immediately noticed the differences. It's slimmer, lighter, and the display is noticeably larger.

And when I started using the device, I could feel it was better and faster than the Series 9 — no wonder that song kept playing in my head!

Apple Watch Series 10 is bigger, better, faster, lighter

Contrary to the popular opinion circulating online, I believe the Apple Watch Series 10 brings some big upgrades over its predecessors. Whether you're a Series 9 user, have an older model, or are considering your first Apple Watch, the Series 10 makes sense to buy — provided it fits your budget. Yes, the design remains largely unchanged, and from a distance, you probably won’t notice much difference, but as someone familiar with the Apple Watch, you’ll quickly realise that the overall experience has received a significant upgrade.

But before I dive in to the upgrades, let’s have a quick look at the specifications that the Watch Series 10 offers:

The Apple Watch Series 10 is available in two sizes: 42mm and 46mm. You can see both of them in the photos here in this review. The Watch Series 10 comes with a case made of both aluminium and titanium. This time around, the aluminium also gets a new colour — Jet Black, which has the same shiny and mirror-like finish that we earlier used to get in the steel variant. The 46mm watch featured in the review here has that finish.

The Watch Series 10 features an OLED Retina LTPO display with an Always-On mode, providing a resolution of 352 x 430 pixels for the 42mm model, and 396 x 484 pixels for the 46mm version. The display reaches a maximum brightness of 2,000nits.

Powered by the S10 SiP processor, the Series 10 supports fast charging, allowing the device to reach 80 per cent battery capacity in under an hour. Durability-wise, it holds a WR50 rating for water resistance up to 50 meters, IP6X dust resistance, and scratch-resistant sapphire crystal for the titanium models, while aluminium variants are protected with Ion-X glass.

The watch is equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, and optional LTE for cellular models. It also comes with 64GB of internal storage for apps, media, and more. In terms of weight, the aluminium model is lighter, weighing around 32g for the 42mm and 39g for the 46mm variant, while the titanium models are slightly heavier at 40g and 47g respectively.

The Watch Series 10 may look the same, but it’s not

Coming to the experience, when I put the watch on for the first time, I could immediately tell the Watch Series 10 is lighter and slimmer. Apple told us that you won’t notice, but the digital crown on the watch has also shrunk by a millimetre on the inside, and that’s what also helps in making the watch slimmer.

The display is evidently brighter too. Apple says that the OLED display on the Series 10, which uses the LTPO3 tech, is up to 40 per cent brighter than the Series 9 from certain angles thanks to a wide-angle display. And the Watch Series 10 has the largest display ever on the Apple Watch –– yes, it’s bigger than that of the Watch Ultra as well. According to Apple, the Watch Series 10 has 3 per cent more screen than Ultra 2.

This means, typing on the Apple Watch is much easier now. I don’t usually type a lot on the Watch –– who does? –– but every now and then, when I am away from my phone, I like to use the Apple Watch keyboard for quick replies. I did the same on the Watch Series 9. On the Watch Series 10, typos are definitely less. That’s also because the buttons on the keyboard are now 20 per cent bigger.

The screen refresh rate on the Apple Watch Series 10 has also improved. Its OLED display now refreshes once per second when the watch is idle, as opposed to every minute previously. This offers better display efficiency. Apple has also introduced new watch faces designed to leverage this 1Hz refresh rate, enabling smoother animations even when the device is in low-power mode. This improvement conserves battery, and gives you a better overall user experience by ensuring fluid visuals at all times.

The Watch Series 10 charges faster than any other Apple Watch

As I said, I am an active user of the Apple Watch. I use it daily for 16 to 18 hours. In that time, I use the workout app, I play music on the Watch, I connect my AirPods to it, I take calls on it, I have the Always On display turned on, and I have notifications for work apps turned on on it. With all that, I get a battery life of about a day and a half. I am quite happy with that. Yes, if I compare it to the battery life on the Watch Series 9, then it’s the same battery performance I got on that. So, in terms of upgrades, for me, the battery life on both watches has remained the same.

But what has significantly improved is the fast charging support. Like Apple says, the Watch Series 10 “charges faster than ever”. I am able to charge my Watch Series 10 from 0 to 100 per cent in a little over an hour. Even if I place it on charge for about 45-50 minutes, I get enough battery to get the watch through the day. I think this was a feature missing on the Apple Watch for a while.

The Watch Series 10 upgrades that I love more than others

While I truly appreciate the improvements to the Watch Series 10 display, design and battery, the two features on the new Apple Watch that I love more than the others are voice isolation support, and the training load feature.

Let’s talk about voice isolation. Answering calls on the Apple Watch has always been convenient, but often, unless it’s a quick "yes" or "no," you end up cutting the call short and switching to your phone because the other person is overwhelmed by background noise. That changes with Watch Series 10. It now supports voice isolation, a feature that filters out ambient noise. While testing it, I intentionally answered calls from the watch at the gym and in a busy market. Both times, the feedback I received was that my voice was crisp and clear, with no background noise or disturbances.

The other new feature on the watch that I love is the training load. If you are someone like me, who primarily uses the Apple Watch to track your health metrics, you are going to love the training load feature.

The feature, which is simple and user-friendly, basically helps you understand and improve your training. It tells you how much load you are taking during your training currently, and if you can push more, and or if you should take it easy.

The feature measures the intensity and duration of your workouts over the past 7 days and compares them to your activity over the previous 28 days. Based on this comparison, it categorises your current training load, ranging from "well below" to "well above," helping you understand the stress your body is under and assess whether your routine is sustainable.

To view this data, you can go to the Activity app on your watch, tap the Training Load button, and use the Digital Crown to scroll through your last seven days of training load.

Personally, the feature has helped me understand my workout intensity and make better-informed training decisions. It also accounts for long-duration activities with low heart rates, like hiking. For cardio, effort ratings are automatically generated, while for strength training, you will need to input your effort manually. The training load is calculated as a weighted 28-day average.

Should you get the Apple Watch Series 10?

At the risk of sounding too impressed, I recommend you to consider the Apple Watch Series 10. The Watch brings some fantastic upgrades, some of which may not be noticeable, but the overall user experience is definitely better on the Watch Series 10, compared to Watch Series 9, or any other Apple Watch. The Apple Watch is priced starting at Rs 46,900 for the aluminium variant, and the titanium model is priced starting Rs 79,900.